U-T Multimedia

For two to three hours a day this past offseason, Chargers linebacker Antwan Applewhite pored over game film from 2008. One day he'd watch all blitz-package plays. The next he might break down his performance over an entire game.

The time alone in the film room doesn't include the hours he spent with coaches going over more film, or the opportunities he took to pick the brain of the stalwarts at his position, such as Stephen Cooper.

In all facets — condition, preparation, execution — head coach Norv Turner said Applewhite is showing how badly he wants to be a top-notch player. Funny, because when he first became a Charger in 2007, Applewhite made some wonder if he was anything more than a poser.

“If you're not a starter, you have to show what you can do on special teams, and I don't think he took it too seriously,” Cooper said.

Applewhite had little to be brash about when he arrived at that first training camp. He had earned first-team, All-Mountain West Conference honors at San Diego State in his junior year, and then jumped early into the NFL Draft. But nobody picked him, and after the Chargers signed him as a free agent, coaches say Applewhite showed up heavy on attitude and light on professional fundamentals and work ethic.

That didn't go over well, and Applewhite was cut after camp. He went back home to Los Angeles and for the first 10 weeks of the season worked as a security guard.

“I was watching on TV these guys who I had been in training camp with,” Applewhite said. “You sit there and say, ‘I can play with those guys.’ It kind of smacks you in the face a little bit when it happens.”

In late November 2007, the Chargers called and signed him to the practice squad, on which he would toil until early last season. Applewhite returned, humbled and hungrier.

“I was in a different place,” he said. “I said less and did more.”

Said Chargers linebackers coach John Pagano: “You saw the difference between his first time seeing (the NFL), being cut and then coming back and basically doing the opposite of what he did before.”

Applewhite, 23, admits he could have handled some things better, but he says his attitude came from being naturally confident, not cocky.

“I'm a confident person. Sometimes that can be displayed the wrong way, especially if someone doesn't know you,” he said. “My first year, maybe I should have thought about it a little bit. But it's just the way I've always been. I think now that we're on the same page, (Pagano) knows what kind of player I am.”

He is a player who, despite being on a team that is deep at linebacker, has forced coaches to recognize his athletic ability and versatility. Promoted from the practice squad to replace the injured Shawne Merriman after the first week of the season in 2008, Applewhite's playing time increased as the weeks wore on. By the end of the season, when the Chargers were having their 4-0 December run, Applewhite was on the field a lot.